Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" to comfort John Lennon's 5-year-old son Julian, whose parents were getting a divorce.
The Men Without Hats lead singer wrote "The Safety Dance" after getting kicked out of a bar for dancing too aggressively. The song is literally about being safe to dance if you want to.
In 2004, the word "Bootylicious" made the Oxford English Dictionary, three years after the Destiny's Child song was released. Definition: "Blend of booty buttocks and delicious."
The first TV theme song to become a hit was "Peter Gunn" back in 1959. It's an instrumental composed by Henry Mancini. His version was used on an album called The Music From Peter Gunn, which stayed at #1 for 10 weeks. The song was also a hit for Duane Eddy.
"Veronica" was inspired by Elvis Costello's grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease.
Many love songs come back to haunt the singer when the relationship doesn't work out, but "Wish I Knew You" by The Revivalists isn't one of them. Lead singer David Shaw wrote it for his girlfriend, Sam. The song was released in 2015 and they got married in 2022.
John tells the "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" story and explains why he disappeared for so long.
When you have a song called "Fire," it's tempting to set one - these guys did.
Nirvana, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are among those who wrote songs with cities that show up in this quiz.
How Bing Crosby, Les Paul, a US Army Signal Corps Officer, and the Nazis helped shape rock and Roll.
The singer-songwriter Melanie talks about her spiritual awakening at Woodstock, "Brand New Key," and why songwriting is an art, not a craft.
It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.